Radio Times Festival Dispatches: Endeavour

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The Killing Times are here at the inaugural Radio Times Festival on a sunny Saturday afternoon, mingling with the likes of people from the Great British Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing. In among the panel sessions starring the Great and the good, there are some real gems when it comes to crime drama, namely the first panel session we attended… Endeavour.

The Morse prequel is gearing up for it third series later in the year, so it was full steam ahead.

Damien Timmer said that Colin Dexter had taken a bit of persuading for the show to become more than the short story he wrote, that originally appeared in the Daily Mail. Trimmer said that they had wanted to create something that honoured the original Morse but also something that stood on its own two feet.

The Endeavour panel

Russell Lewis meanwhile, said that Dexter is heavily involved in the creative process and still checks scripts, often telling Lewis to simplify things. Lewis said that there’s always a temptation to out Dexter the man who created it all. As for series three, both Lewis and the man who plays Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) said that these new four episodes will see Morse in transition, and his ascent up the hierarchy of the police force (or not) will be a key theme. Lewis also added that there will be some common threads linking Endeavour with Morse in this series. An exclusive clip we saw featured the young Morse wandering through a posh hippie party in what looked like the same house the older Morse wandered through a rave in.

Also in attendance was Abigail Thaw, who said that when she first came on set she was conscious of coming onto the set with too much baggage and not putting too much pressure on Shaun. She also said that her late father valued, above most, good writing and that he would have loved Endeavour.